


The Drive

by autumnsolstice9



Series: Robb & Arya [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, not starkcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 19:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8908801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsolstice9/pseuds/autumnsolstice9
Summary: He turns his eyes back to the road, fingers tapping lightly on the steering wheel. “Of course I’ll go rescue you,” he tells her. “Why wouldn’t I? Besides, things are going to be fine in King’s Landing. You’ll be with Father. You’ll be safe.”Arya is silent, still drawing circles in the window, but when she speaks again her voice has a weight to it that shocks Robb. “If it comes to it, come for Sansa before you come for me. Promise me you’ll do that.”tumblr prompt: things you said while we were driving





	

**Author's Note:**

> in case you can't tell by now, arya is my fav and im gay for maisie williams
> 
> this is based off a tumblr prompt:"things you said while we were driving"

“If something happens in King’s Landing, will you come for me?”

Robb turns his head away from the snow covered roads of Winterfell to stare at Arya for a second, taking in the way she seems hunched in on herself as she stares out the window, her finger lazily drawing circles in the fog of the window.

Sansa, Arya, and his father leave for King’s Landing in less than a week, and while Sansa has been all for living there for a short while, he has been unable to get a read on Arya. He’s assumed she doesn’t want to go- after all, she is a daughter of the North, frost in her veins. He has watched her learn to ski and skate, has taught her how to snowboard on the slope outside their house, and cannot imagine his youngest sister in any other spot besides Winterfell.

He turns his eyes back to the road, fingers tapping lightly on the steering wheel. “Of course I’ll go rescue you,” he tells her. “Why wouldn’t I? Besides, things are going to be fine in King’s Landing. You’ll be with Father. You’ll be safe.”

Arya is silent, still drawing circles in the window, but when she speaks again her voice has a weight to it that shocks Robb. “If it comes to it, come for Sansa before you come for me. Promise me you’ll do that.”

Robb has never been particularly close with Arya, he cannot read her like Jon can, so he does not know what she is really trying to say. Arya has always been about reading between the lines and he is a man who has always had trouble finding the meaning behind her statements. He spends a minute on her words before nodding his head.

“Yeah, Arya, I’ll do that. I swear it.”

In the moment it means nothing. After all, what can go wrong in King’s Landing?

***

When Robb hears that his father is killed by Lannister men, he screams until his throat is raw.

His mother is near catatonic and it is Bran who breaks their grief. “Robb,” he asks, his voice so quiet it is barely heard, “What are they going to do to Sansa and Arya?”

Robb thinks of the promise he made to Arya so many months ago, how he would rescue Sansa first if they were in danger. “Mother,” he asks, “where are the girls? The letter- did it say anything other than father’s death?”

Catelyn doesn’t move, just stares desolately out the window, her eyes red rimmed and her hair a matted mess, so Robb takes the letter she has and reads it over. Anger floods his veins when he reads that the Lannister’s are still going to make Sansa marry their disgusting Joffrey.

His anger turns to fear when he finishes the letter and there is no mention of Arya.

***

When Sansa writes to their family, telling them she is okay living with the Lannisters, she does not mention their sister.

The news on the television follows the story constantly, headlines screaming that Ned Stark is dead, Sansa Stark is living with the high and mighty Lannister’s, the Stark family in Winterfell is in mourning. No news outlet asks where Arya is.

Rickon is too young to understand and Bran just wants family back, so it is Robb and Catelyn who plan to get the girls back. Robb and his mother sit at a table, going over how to best smuggle Sansa out of King’s Landing without ruining their livelihoods.

“What of Arya?” Robb asked once during their planning.

His mother’s face was grim when she answered: “We can’t worry about her now. We don’t even know if she’s alive! It’s been weeks since your father was killed and there has been no news of her, but we know where Sansa is. So we get her and think of Arya later.”

He knows that his mother just wants her daughters back and will take one daughter over none, but his stomach turns at the thought of forgetting his ragtag sister. His thoughts turn back to their conversation in the car so many months ago. _“If it comes to it, come for Sansa before you come for me. Promise me you’ll do that.”_

Catelyn is not the only one who thought of Arya as an afterthought during perilous situations- Arya herself did. Robb cannot fathom what his sister meant, even though her words keep him up at night. Does she value Sansa’s life more than her own? Does she know Sansa’s delicacy? Did she assume she would die alongside their father?

Tomorrow he leaves for King’s Landing to get Sansa back. Then they can think of Arya.

***

They manage to pull it off, getting Sansa back. They sneak her out of the city and drive back to Winterfell, their car speeding down the highway until they are back home.

Catelyn cries tears of joy once they are safe in their mansion again, and Robb sheds some tears as well. His sister is back, safe from harm. Sansa is sobbing- she has been since they put her in their car and began the ride back north- and she is showered in kisses from Catelyn.

Jon Snow, who had arrived back from basic training due to extenuating circumstances to watch Bran and Rickon while they rescued Sansa, smiles from the outskirts. Robb watches his smile slowly begin to fade when the door doesn’t open for Arya to clamber through. 

Robb is pulled to the side by his half-brother. “Where is Arya?” Jon questions, his voice stern and demanding answers.

He can only shake his head, whispering that they don’t know where their little sister is. Jon looks close to tears and begins to walk away when Robb calls him back. “Arya, before she left, she said if anything went wrong to get Sansa before her. Do you know why?”

Jon’s laugh is cold and broken when he answers. “Robb, I love you, but did you even think of finding her? Or did you put her to the side for Sansa? I wanted Sansa back as much as everyone else- she’s my sister, too- but have you ever considered that Arya knows her worth isn’t as much as her sisters? That the Stark family can survive without her, but not Sansa?”

Robb begins to protest, automatically ready to defend his family, but Jon cuts him off again. “Look, man, I’m not trying to insult our family. But look at it this way: everything you want a Stark lady to be is the opposite of Arya. It’s what Sansa is. She knows that she hasn’t met expectations. To the family, to the business, she’s less valuable. She knows it. She knows that Catelyn loves Sansa more. Don’t even try to deny it.”

He laughs, his voice bitter and full of emptiness, “God, she’s such a martyr.” Then Jon Snow leaves the Stark mansion, sparing kind words to Sansa on his way out, and heads back to basic training.

Robb is left reeling. He assumes Jon is right- after all, his half brother has always known Arya best- but part of him still refuses to believe it.

Arya knows she’s worth as much as Sansa- she has to. If she doesn’t, Robb doesn’t know what he’ll do.

***

Robb is ashamed to admit it, but after 3 months of searching for Arya and getting no results, they assume she is dead. The only one who still believes she is alive is Jon, and everyone thinks he’s simply in denial.

Three months after the family mourns Arya, she returns home.

***

She doesn’t speak much and has more scars than Robb would have thought possible, but Arya is back and the entire family is adjusting to her presence. She spends most of her time outside, on her snowboard and racing through the snow.

Robb approaches her one night when she is sitting in her room, writing what is undoubtedly another letter to Jon, and broaches what he has been considering an unspeakable topic.

“When you asked me to get Sansa before getting you, that day we were driving around Winterfell, did you think that you were worth less? Why did you want me to get Sansa before you?” His face is neutral but he can tell his voice is straining from anxiety and a sense of hopelessness he has never felt before. He needs to know why she would put herself last, why she made him promise to search for her after Sansa.

Her smile- like so much of her these days- is blank and empty. “Robb, I love you and I love mother, but you all need Sansa more than you need me. She is the beautiful one, the proper lady, the one who can make the family strong. I’m a stubborn, ugly, little girl. Is there really a choice?”

His response is immediate: “You’re a Stark and worth as much as Sansa. Who cares if you’re a lady?”

Arya only shakes her head. “I’m actually really tired right now. Maybe we can talk about this later.” She gently pushes Robb out the room with a good night, and as he is walking down the hall to his own room he realizes he never said anything to argue with Arya thinking she is ugly.

He wonders if anyone has ever told her she’s beautiful.

***

They are in his car, driving down a wintry road, when Arya finally opens up to him. “I know you all stopped looking for me. That you thought I was dead.” Her voice is strong but quivers at the end and she won’t make turn her head towards him, so he knows she must be near tears but trying to act strong.

“You were gone. It was as if you disappeared. What were we supposed to do?”

“I dug through sewers to escape King’s Landing,” Arya whispers. “I lived with the homeless for weeks after father’s death. I waited for you. After you came for Sansa, I thought that surely you would come back for me. I waited to see you and mother come into the city, searching for me. After a couple weeks it became obvious you weren’t coming back, that I was on my own, and so I headed north.

Robb, there is a reason I made you promise to get Sansa first. It’s easier to think it was my choice for you to get her first than to know I was the second thought.”

He is stunned into silence, the only noise in the car the music on the radio. He can hear Arya sniffle in the seat next to him, crying to herself. “You were supposed to come back for me, Robb, that was it. That was all I wanted.”

He can’t think of any words to describe how sick to his stomach he feels, so instead he says, “I’m sorry”, the words cracking in the air, and he repeats himself over and over as he becomes blinded by tears. He pulls over to the side of the road and turns off the car, his voice shaking as he keeps saying he’s sorry.

They sit together for hours, just crying and hugging until they feel numb to the world. When they peel apart, they are not completely healed. 

“I’ll always get you, Arya, from any danger,” Robb whispers.

Her eyes are still blurred with tears when she tells him he shouldn’t make promises he can’t keep.

“It’s true, Arya. I’ll always get you.”

No, they are not completely healed, but when Arya holds his hand for the rest of the car ride home, Robb thinks that maybe, just maybe, they can get there one day.

**Author's Note:**

> well!!!!!!!!! this is something!!!!!! there's never enough arya and robb relations


End file.
